First Watch
by Death-God-777
Summary: It's Halt's turn for first watch. As he does so, he muses about Will and the relationship they share. Parental!HaltWill. One-shot.


**First Watch**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any part of the Ranger's Apprentice series. It all belongs to John Flanagan. If I did, I'm sure there would be more Will centred drama. XD

**Characters:** Halt, Will, as well as minor Abelard, Tug, Kicker and Horace.

**Words:** 1, 737

**Author's Notes:** Just finished reading book 9 today, and this idea came to me yesterday. I always would like to see family interactions in the series – especially between Halt and Will – but alas, it is never meant to be. And so, I have written this.

()~~~~~()~~~~~()~~~~~()

"_I'm so tired of routines,_

_The day goes on and on."_

- Live to Party, the Jonas Brothers

()~~~~~()~~~~~()~~~~~()

The stars were barely visible through the dense covering of leaves far above. A fact which suited Halt just fine. The less light that was provided, the less chance there was of them being spotted. Not that he thought they _would_ be spotted. What kind of Ranger would that make him? After all, it was he who had chosen tonight's camp site.

Lowering his gaze from the night sky, Halt did a cursory sweep of the area. It was more out of habit that he did it. If something was wrong or an unknown figure was approaching, Abelard and Tug would have reacted by now. Instead, he could hear them off to his left, grazing peacefully.

Standing to stretch his muscles – something he would harshly scold Will or Horace doing if he caught them – Halt took a turn about the camp. Both the boys accompanying him were deep in sleep, Will curled up in a ball and hugging his long-bow, Horace sprawled on his back, snoring lightly, his sword well within reach.

They were both exceptional boys.

Halt allowed a ghost of a smile to cross his face as he observed the sleeping form of his apprentice. Will had always impressed Halt, even from the few times the old, grizzled Ranger had seen him as a child, sneaking through Castle Redmont. There had always been something of a Ranger within Will. And now Halt had the privilege of watching that inclination morph into pure talent. There was no doubt that Will was good at what he did. And while Halt would never admit it, even under pain of death, it was not his teaching that had made Will what he was; it was Will himself.

A rather crisp gust of wind whipped through the camp. Aforementioned apprentice curled in tighter on himself, causing his single blanket to slide off his shoulder. A brief shudder went through Will as another breeze swept past but he remained asleep. It wasn't yet time to wake up and such a mild discomfort was hardly worth waking up over.

Halt smiled grimly. Great, now he was imagining what Will was thinking while asleep. Clearly it wasn't enough just to think Abelard could understand him and respond appropriately. If only Gilan could see him now.

Sighing, the older Ranger crouched down next to his apprentice. He extended a hand and grabbed the blanket that had fallen. Gently, Halt slid it over Will's shoulders and tucked it around the boy to prevent it from falling off again. The entire process was done out of obligation, Halt convinced himself, not because it just felt like the natural thing to do. Not because if he didn't do it, he'd spend the rest of the night feeling guilty. And definitely not because it was as instinctive as firing an arrow.

Will mumbled incoherently, pulling the blanket closer now that its comforting warmth was back. Halt watched the action, having long since memorised all the minor details that belonged to Will alone. Such as the fact that Will chewed on his bottom lip briefly when he adjusted position. Or, that every time he tugged the blanket closer, he would bury his head just that little bit deeper into his pillow.

Not that Halt would know.

Growling at himself softly for being so damn sentimental, Halt pushed himself back to his feet and did another lap around the camp. Abelard paused to look at him curiously as he did so, wondering if something was wrong, but Halt made a quick gesture, assuring his faithful horse that everything was as it should be. The horse tossed its head in reply and went back to grazing, nudging Tug as he did so. The smaller horse looked in Halt's direction briefly before returning to nibbling on the grass at his feet.

Brilliant, Halt thought wirily, even the horses were conspiring against him. What next? Kicker, that lumbering battle-horse, would join the banter too? Surely not.

Halt went to return to his post but found that the thought of sitting down, staring at what was going to turn out to be nothing, for hours on end would be extremely irksome; not to mention downright boring. Instead, he just stood, eyes roaming the forest that surrounded him. If anyone were to attack, unless they were incredibly stupid – not that he would put it past _some_ people – they would wait until early dawn, when everyone was asleep and the last sentry was close to dozing off. The sight of an ever-moving sentry such as himself would only deter them. And no one was idiotic enough to make a move when it was first watch. And it was first watch.

A soft murmuring reached Halt's ears. If he was not as well trained as he was, he would have certainly missed it. But he _was_ well trained, and he _did_ hear it. He turned back to the camp, seeing Tug's head already raised. Well, that confirmed his suspicion on who it was that was muttering.

Treading to the camp's midst, he saw Will still curled up, though there was an added stiffness to his shoulders now. Clearly his young apprentice was caught in some terrible nightmare. Only his rigorous training stopped the boy from yelling out completely. He had been drilled about the necessity of silence so firmly that, even his sleep, his brain limited the amount of sound that it allowed Will to produce. In a way, it saddened Halt. Will couldn't ever completely relax and let himself go, even in sleep. A Ranger's life could be too hard.

Settling down next to Will, Halt carefully reached out a hand. Softly, softly, he brushed some dark locks off of Will's face, smoothing down that mop the boy claimed to be hair. It said volumes for Will's faith in Halt that he didn't wake when someone else touched him. Will had seemingly taught himself that Halt being on watch meant that no harm would come to him. Even if someone touched him, it was okay. If that someone was a friend, there was no harm in the action and if that someone was an enemy, Halt would take care of them.

It was a very dangerous belief to have, Halt thought. If, for some reason, he missed something, Will wouldn't realise something was wrong until it was far too late. But in a way, it made Halt proud that he had earned such trust from another human being. Will was willing to put his life into Halt's hands and trust the other to keep him safe. Which did nothing to ease Halt's nerves. If something did ever go wrong, it would be _he_ who was to blame.

'_You always make my life harder, you know that?'_

Brushing the boy's hair back a few more times, Halt was rewarded by seeing Will visibly relax. It seemed that the worst of the nightmare had passed – that, or it had been chased away. Noting that Will was now calm and resting peacefully, Halt resumed his standing position once more.

He walked absently away, heading towards the horses. Tug had a look on his face that Halt didn't like. It seemed to say, _how long are you going to pretend that you don't think of him as your son?_ Mind you, that was a rather descriptive explanation for a simple look, and Halt was sure that he had simply misinterpreted. More likely, it was something like, _are there any apples?_ Yes, that seemed more likely.

"No boy, I don't have any apples," Halt whispered, patting the horse's nose briefly before moving toward Abelard.

Behind him, Tug stamped a foot impatiently. He knew that was not what he had meant and the little horse knew that Halt knew it too. The old Ranger was just being stubborn, as usual.

Halt looked to Abelard for some support. All he got in reply was a withering look. It seemed as though Abelard agreed with Tug. He was about to snap a retort when he saw Kicker give him the exact same look. His mouth opened in disbelief, but he quickly closed it. Standing there open-mouthed would serve no purpose, except to make him look like even more of a fool than he already imagined he did. Unable to face this ridiculously unbelievable situation – a Ranger vs. three horses – Halt marched back to his original watch point and sat, huffing as he did so.

()~~~~~()~~~~~()~~~~~()

A few hours later Will was awoken by a rough shaking of the shoulder. Jerking awake, he looked up and over to see Halt standing there, looking somewhat disgruntled. Will frowned; nothing had happened since Halt had started his watch, surely. If it had have done, he, Will, would have undoubtedly been awoken by the commotion.

But something was wrong. The harshness of Halt's original shake had been proof of that.

"What is it Halt?" he asked, speech slurring because of tiredness while he forced his body to wake the hell up. "What's wrong? Did you see something? Were they near the camp?"

"Oh," Halt answered, rubbing his neck, looking somewhat shame-faced. "Nothing. Nothing's wrong Will. It's your turn for sentry duty. Hop to it."

Will was about to retort, not understanding what he'd done to deserve this treatment, when Abelard gave a sharp whinny that, if he was translating correctly, sounded somewhat accusing.

"Shut up," Halt snapped, throwing a dark look in the horse's direction. "I've had enough of you three for one night," he muttered quizzically.

And with that, the old Ranger threw himself down onto his bedspread, instantly pretending to be asleep. Will raised an eyebrow; he'd never seen anything like it. All three horses, including Kicker, nickered softly to each other, seemingly about Halt.

"What is it?" Will asked.

Each horse looked in his direction for a moment before hastily resuming to graze, blatantly ignoring him.

"What have I ever done?" the young Ranger demanded, turning away, sulking. With an angry slump, Will dropped down to his sentry position, venting quietly at no one in particular.

()~~~~~()~~~~~()~~~~~()

Four hours later, Horace was wrenched out of his sleep by a frustrated looking Will.

"Get up," the other boy ordered. "It's your turn to do sentry. And no, nothing's wrong. And yes, I'm fine. And now, I'm going to bed."

Then Will curled up in his blanket defiantly, leaving Horace staring after him.

'_Whatever's gotten into him?'_

()~~~~~()~~~~~()~~~~~()

_A/N: thanks for taking the time to read this, I appreciate it. Let me know what you thought, and what improvements I could make. Here's hoping to some reviews! ^-^_

_DG777_


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